V for Victoria
by IsirisRose
Summary: Tori knows Jade likes her, but watching her struggle with her feelings is too much fun. But then again, waiting forever isn't very fun. Tori has a plan to fast track Jade's feelings, but will Jade catch on? A Jori story.
1. Chapter 1

"You know she likes you right?" Andre and Tori were standing at her locker, watching Jade stomp away from them, pushing someone out of her path as she made her way through the hallway.

Tori smirked, "Mhm, I do." She laughed a bit, and turned her attention to Andre as she thought about the "conversation" she had just had with Jade.

"Well then why aren't you doing anything about it? Like, come on Tori! I _know_ you've liked her since the first time you met! You might've fooled Jade into thinking you liked Beck, but not me!"

"Okay first of all, how do you _know_ I've liked her for that long, and second of all I like watching her squirm. It's hilarious!"

"Okay Tor, I'm your best friend, so of course I know you've liked her that long! And what are you talking about it's funny? That's just jacked up."

"Seriously Andre? She's tortured me since I've known her and gets a kick out of it or something, so why is it so hard to understand that this is like my own form of torture on her and that I get a kick out of it?" Tori looked at him incredulously, thinking she was completely justified.

"Well… I guess when you put it that way… Okay yeah, it is pretty funny! I mean, who would have ever thought Jade of all people would like you?"

"Hey!" Tori hit Andre's shoulder, "Obviously I'm super awesome, which is why she likes me! But in all seriousness, if I try to make a move on her before she realizes it herself that she likes me, I would find myself on the wrong end of her scissors."

"Yeah, I guess that's true." Andre nodded in agreement with a serious look on his face.

"Right, so now I just get to watch her struggle with pretending not to like me until she accepts that she actually does. Also, it would be pretty funny to force her to make the first move. Besides you, I've been pretty good at hiding it anyway. I mean, we _do_ go to a performing arts school after all! Even if I'm not good at hiding it, Jade won't realize it soon enough. I can't wait to see how awkward she's gonna be when she tries to ask me out! But I might take pity on her, we'll see."

"Well, good luck with that! I mean datin' Jade isn't gonna be easy. Do you remember what she was like with Beck?" Andre looked at her as if she was crazy, but

Tori just shrugged.

"Well yeah, of course I do! But I'm not Beck, so it'll be different. She won't be able to just whip one over my head, I'll make it challenging for her. I already do."

"I still think you shouldn't wait too long after she finally accepts her feelings for you. Like, put a time limit on it or something." Andre looked thoughtful for a minute, "Hey, here's an idea! How about if she hasn't done anything by Valentines Day, you confront her about it?" Tori just looked at him skeptically.

"Yeah, Valentines Day and Jade aren't so good a mix. But I guess maybe I could at least throw some hints at her by then. Maybe I'll do like a secret admirers thing or something. It is only a few weeks away so… I'll think about it." Andre looked pleased at that, at least.

"Good. You, Miss Tori, are a lot more devious than any of us imagined. Man, Jade has no idea what she's gonna get with you."

"I will take that as a compliment, and anyways, it's a good thing she doesn't know, it'll be so easy to surprise her then." Tori thought over what Andre had said after he had walked away. She could do some romantic things for Jade on Valentines Day and hopefully get her surprised and curious enough to reevaluate things a bit. If Jade was looking for someone who likes her then maybe she would come to the conclusion that she liked Tori much sooner. It was time to think of some ideas because she only had three weeks until the day, and her "romantic" gestures had to be on a level that would not leave Jade disgusted. They had to be nice and cute things, while simultaneously being dark and mysterious. She would have to get really creative on this one.

* * *

A week had gone by and Tori was no closer to thinking of Jade appropriate romantic ideas than when she started. She only had thought of getting her some black roses and maybe she would slip a pair of new sharp scissors with them just in case Jade would rather chop them up. She just kept over thinking things. Despite her panic over what to do for Jade, she was thoroughly enjoying watching Jade struggle. She would either be more irate than usual and just yell at Tori more, to which Tori would just smirk adding fuel to the fire, or else Jade would be acting surprisingly nice and then catch herself. Tori thought that maybe Jade was more annoyed when she caught herself being nice than when Tori wouldn't react like normal to Jade's angry outbursts. Yeah, to say Jade was confused right now would be an understatement. She would laugh with Andre at lunch about it, and Jade had caught them a few times demanding to know what was so funny, but they would both just laugh harder. She was more convinced about the Valentines Day plan though.

The problem she had with coming up with ideas had left her in the position she found herself today. That is, hiding in Jade's bushes while watching Jade through the window of her living room. She had actually never been to Jade's house, but her sleuthy side had come out and she had managed to interrogate it out of Cat. Well, interrogate may be an over exaggeration. She asked, and Cat simply told her. Sometimes that girl's obliviousness was just such a blessing. She had to figure out how to get into Jade's house while Jade was in it without getting caught. She had the idea that maybe if she looked around Jade's room she would be able to come up with something that Jade would like better.

Jade seemed preoccupied with something that was on the TV and had been sitting on her couch for the last 15 minutes. Tori took this as her cue, deciding that she had at least 20 minutes to snoop around before Jade would even think of getting up. She carefully walked around the house, searching for the room she thought would be Jade's. She noticed one of the second floor windows seemed to be completely blocked of sunlight and smiled. That one had to be Jade's room. Unfortunately, there were no trees or anything to climb on around her window. Tori made it back to the front part of the house where she could see Jade was still sitting. She snuck up to the front door, doing a few "ninja" rolls – really just awkwardly tumbling and hurting herself a bit – and then tried to see if the front door was open and it surprisingly was. No wonder Sinjin managed to get into her house so easily. She would need to have a talk with Jade about this when they finally got together. Tori's dad was a cop, so making sure the house was locked was like second nature to her. She was also surprised that Jade left herself in a vulnerable position to anyone who tried to break in, but then realized that if anyone came across Jade, they probably wouldn't be living for much longer after. That girl was crazily accurate with her scissors and she always had at least one pair on her. That was going to be another safety hazard when they finally got together because Tori never knew exactly where Jade was hiding them.

Somehow she managed to close the door softly and creep across to the stairs without Jade noticing anything. She had decided to forgo the ninja moves this time, which was probably a great idea. She didn't want to startle Jade and find a pair of scissors stuck in her body any time soon. The stairs were a little difficult, because they squeaked a bit as she climbed them, but Jade was watching 1000 Ways To Die, and it seemed she was too focused and oblivious to her surroundings to notice the slight noise Tori had made.

She easily found Jade's room and sidled into the dark room, managing to find the lights fairly easily. She had debated on keeping them off and using her phone as a flashlight, but she didn't want to bump into anything and also the things in Jade's room would probably be a lot creepier by phone light.

She was not at all surprised by the amount of black in Jade's room, but she was by all the red accents. She had figured they'd be blue or green or something because Jade never wore red in her hair. The second thing she noticed was a bunny in a cage in the corner of Jade's room. Awww! So Jade _was_ a softy at heart! She moved towards the back corner where there was a pretty awesome armchair. The shelf that hung just behind it had a bunch of weird things like the jar with the fatty blob that Jade had gotten when they were at the hospital that one time.

She was just about to walk away from that particular shelf when she noticed a half empty bag of her blood. She already knew that Jade had it, but why was it half empty? Was Jade really a vampire? Before she could laugh at herself for that crazy idea she noticed a yellow sign that had "What I Hate" written in some red ink. She froze as the pieces finally connected in her brain. Jade wrote a sign using her blood? What was she getting herself into? Oh who was she kidding, she loved Jade's weirdness, it kept her on her toes too!

She vaguely remembered this being the corner that Jade usually shot her videos in. Maybe she should watch some of those to get an idea on what to avoid with Jade. She couldn't really remember much from Jade's videos, but she did remember that Jade always had a bunch of candles lit, and she could understand why, because despite the light she had flicked on, there was still a darkness hanging over the room, but that was probably from the fact that no sunlight was allowed in and her walls were painted pretty dark. The last thing she did before she left Jade's room was take some pictures of the butterfly specimens on her walls. She'd have to do some research for that one.

It had gotten a bit darker out by the time Tori had successfully made it down the stairs, which was actually convenient since she had a bit more cover this time. She breathed a sigh of relief as she closed Jade's front door once more, especially when she just heard the show's credit song start to play. Her brain was now working in overdrive to try to file away all she had learned. A huge smile was now on Tori's face since her previous problem of not having Jade appropriate ideas was solved.

* * *

The next day found Tori in an ecstatic mood. She was so ridiculously excited for Valentines Day this year. She could almost not wait for the two weeks left to go by. Even if Jade asked her out before then, which she was pretty positive wasn't going to happen, she could still give Jade all this awesome stuff for Valentines Day, and maybe she would get Jade not to hate it so much. She noticed that Jade had looked at her suspiciously all day, but that could have been because every time she saw Jade she couldn't help but laugh and smirk at her, way too excited for what was going to unfold.

At lunch Tori had made sure she got the seat right next to Jade and then also made sure to sit very close to her, making Jade jump every time their arms brushed. The red on Jade's cheeks made it so hard for Tori to try to keep her innocent and oblivious face on because all she wanted to do was laugh, and Andre wasn't making it any easier because he was cracking up from across the table. She could just tell that Jade was getting closer and closer to the truth and Tori was slowly breaking down her defenses. She could imagine by the time that Valentines Day came she wouldn't need to throw too many hints for Jade to get it.

That night Tori had rushed home so that she could work on getting everything set up for her plan. She used red notecards to write some cryptic messages, and had them all finished to go along with her gifts except the last one. She hadn't decided yet whether she was going to leave it anonymous and just have Jade try to guess who wrote them, or whether she was going to reveal herself. She decided to leave it to the day.

She went to bed thinking of what would come the next day. She had texted Andre and told him that she needed his help in shopping tomorrow and was too excited thinking of it all, so it took her longer than normal to get to bed.

* * *

AN: So at first this one was going to be more of a one shot, but it started getting kind of long, so I broke it up into chapters instead. Hope you all enjoy!

IsirisRose


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning found Tori looking a little more tired than usual. She wasn't as outwardly cheery as she usually was. She was still happy and excited on the inside, but she didn't have the energy to be bouncing. Clearly all her friends noticed this, and asked her about it. She tried to wave it off and just told them she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep that night. Which was totally true, but she wasn't going to tell them why. She noticed that even Jade had looked at her with slight concern, but then she also saw her shake her head and school her features before saying.

"Don't fall asleep in class."

"Why?" Tori just looked at her confused but Jade was smirking.

"Cause then _some_ people might find it amusing to use you as a drawing board."

"Right and by some people you mean you right?"

"You're the one who said it." Jade looked amused. Tori wasn't going to allow it though.

"Well then, if _some_ people decided to do that I guess I would have to find the thing they treasured most, like let's say a nice shiny pair of scissors, and let something bad happen to them. That wouldn't be fun." She walked away grinning at Jade's slightly widened eyes. She would never actually steal Jade's scissors and misplace them or damage them, but Jade didn't need to know that.

The day went surprisingly fast for Tori and she was getting more and more excited as the end of the school day came so that she could go shopping with Andre. She finished putting the last of her books into her locker and closed the door, only to jump at the sight of Jade leaning on the lockers right next to her.

"Oh my God! Jade, you scared me!" Tori had her hand on her chest, trying to get her breath back.

"Yay." Jade didn't even move, with a bored expression and just stared at Tori.

Tori looked back at Jade for a minute, confused, and then finally just asked. "What do you want?"

"What? A person can't just lean here and not want something?" Jade's expression remained the same, but Tori could hear a hint of teasing in her tone.

"Um, well I guess they could… if that person were not you." Tori stared pointedly at Jade, hoping she would just tell her what she wanted.

"Fine..." Jade sighed and crossed her arms, "I wanted to know what you're doing tonight?"

"Uhhh I'm doing something with Andre. Why?"

"Oh um… no reason." Tori was annoyed at Jade. First she comes and scares her half to death, then she has to practically pry out why she's even there, and now Jade isn't being truthful with her. Tori knows there's a real reason for Jade being there, but was getting fed up with her, and didn't really have the time for all this.

"Jade, you're being weird. Why did you want to know what I was doing tonight?"

"I just wanted to ha– uhh I mean, I need help with this short video thing for a class, and wanted to know if you could help, but you know, since you're busy and all, I can just ask someone else, yeah, I'll just ask-" Tori was just about to interrupt Jade when Andre beat her to it.

"Tori! Hey! You ready to go girl?" Andre asked while seemingly ignoring Jade, and she just stood there not really knowing what was going on.

"Uh yeah Andre, just a sec. I'll meet you by the car."

"Tor, this is gonna be so great! I'm so glad you agreed with me! I'll see you in a few! See ya Jade!" Tori nodded to him while Jade just half heartedly waved, and then turned back to Jade.

"Hey Jade, I would actually really like to help you with your project thing. Does tomorrow work, or is that too late?"

"Oh umm no that could work okay… W-What are you doing with Andre exactly? I mean, why is he so happy that you 'agreed with him'?" Jade looked surprisingly curious, but Tori didn't really know what to say, clearly not wanting to tell her why she was going out with Andre, and she was not good enough at lying on the spot.

"Ahhh I can't exactly tell you that…" She trailed off, hoping that Jade would just drop the subject.

"Why? Are you guys like, going on a secret date or something?"

Tori's eyes widened in disbelief, "Um… what?" Jade's whole demeanor had deflated a bit after her question, but Tori didn't really know what to say. She didn't want Jade to suspect anything about Valentines Day yet, but she didn't really want her thinking she was dating Andre either. Although… she _did_ seem a bit jealous… maybe this could help her to realize her feelings.

"Never mind. It's fine, I'll just see you tomorrow Tori." She would have to clear things up with Jade tomorrow. She'd just have to figure out how to do it in a way that didn't alert Jade to what she was really doing. She decided to think about it later, running through the halls to get to Andre's car.

* * *

Between the two of them, it really wasn't hard to get almost all that they needed. She had managed to find some vampire themed scented candles, that also happened to be red, which was pure luck since Halloween was so long ago, but she thought that Jade would like them, remembering her saying something about liking vampires once upon a time. Then she was walking past a record store and happened to see the aisle that held random trinkets from movies and such, where she saw this stuffed black zombie bunny. She had no idea where it was from, but it was perfect for Jade. Andre looked at her a little funny when she rushed in and promptly bought it, but she just ignored him. She was talking to Andre about what else Jade would maybe like when Andre pointed out something to her. It was a pair of black combat boots, but they had red plaid on the side. Her eyes widened, and then a smile crept onto her face, except it didn't last long.

"I don't know what Jade's shoe size is Dre. But they would be perfect for her. Actually, I can totally picture how hot they would look on her… especially with that one dress she has-" Tori's face had gained a somewhat dreamy expression as she pictured Jade in the boots and the dress.

"Woah there Tori. As much as I support the two of you and what not, I don't need to be all girly with you and talkin' about what kind of clothes Jade has and whether they would look good on her. I mean, yeah, the girl is smoking," Tori glared at him at this, "_but_ she's all yours. Besides, I have my eye on someone else."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, but before you ask, I'm not tellin'. Let's just say I'm planning my own little Valentines surprise."

"But Andre!" It was just like him to get her all excited about news and then not tell her anything. He was so frustrating sometimes.

"Nope! Not gettin' a word out of me!" He fiddled with his phone at this, and Tori tried to give him her puppy dog pout, but he wasn't even paying attention.

"Tori, stop pouting at me. I'm not Jade, it's not gonna work on me."

"How did you- you're not even looking!" She said exasperatedly.

"You're predictable." He still wasn't looking at her.

"Am not!"

"Yeah, you kinda are. But that's beside the point, Jade wears a size 8." He finally looked up with a smile on his face.

"Oh… Wait! How'd you know that?"

"I just texted Cat." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right. I should have thought of that."

"Right. So, while you go buy those, I need to go get something from a store I just saw. I won't be long." Tori looked at him skeptically, but didn't push it. She was preoccupied with thoughts on how good Jade would look in those boots anyways.

While she was waiting in line to buy the boots, she noticed they had some scissors for sale, and while it somewhat confused her that a shoe store was selling scissors, she didn't think too long, because they had a red handle, and they were perfect!

When she found Andre again they decided they were hungry and went to the food court to get something to eat. They were just chowing down into some pizza, when they noticed Beck and Robbie coming towards them.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here?"

"Hey Beck, hey Robbie. Tor and I are just hanging out you know? Just buyin' a few things." Tori was grateful that Andre wasn't letting them in on Tori's plan. She didn't really want anyone else to know, especially since she didn't know how Jade would feel about all their friends knowing at once if they did start dating.

"Oh right. Yeah, I guess that's what you do at the mall right?" Robbie looked a little nervous and was eyeing the two of them suspiciously. Tori ignored Robbie, because he was always weird.

"Um yeah... What are you two doing here?" Tori asked them.

"Oh, there's a new sci-fi movie coming out tonight, and Rob and I got here kinda early, so we decided to get food first."

"Oh yeah, I heard that one's supposed to be really good!" Andre said, and Tori tuned them out as she thought about the last thing she wanted to get Jade for Valentines Day. She scrolled through her pictures of the butterflies that hung on Jade's walls once again, trying to remember all that she had so she could hopefully find some that she didn't. Then again, she had no idea where she would even get more. She finished her pizza, and tried to get the three boys' attention. She really wanted to go back home so that she could write out her whole plan in her notebook. She wanted to make sure everything went off without a hitch on V-Day.

"Um… guys look, I really need to get back home, my mom just texted me and she needs my help with… something."

"Oh, right! I need to get back home too anyways. We'll see you guys later and enjoy the movie!" She was glad that Andre had taken the hint, but then was surprised by the serious look on his face. He actually wanted to get home too! Guess it was probably because of his own surprise.

On the way back to Tori's they talked about Jade, and Tori told Andre about when Jade was at her locker after school today and that she thought Jade was jealous.

"Why would she be jealous though? We're best friends."

"Well, I think I gave her the impression that we were more than just hanging out. I think she thinks we were going on a date." Tori sheepishly said.

"Hahahahaha! That's hilarious! Oh my God, this is just too funny! Like you and I would ever go out on a date!"

"Hey! I'm a catch!"

"I know Tor, but that would be like dating my sister."

"Then mama's got some explaining to do!" Tori nudged Andre and laughed.

"Just stop." Her smile dropped.

"Okay, yeah I see where you're coming from. Like, ew! It is actually funny though… I'll try to clear things up with her tomorrow, I just couldn't tell her what we were actually doing, and I was so caught off guard that I couldn't think of what to say, and before I knew it she was walking away from me."

"Right, well, I think it's good she's jealous, cause then maybe she'll realize that she wants to be with you."

"I hope so. I think she was going to ask me to hang out with her today, but then chickened out and made it out that she had a project to do. Maybe she's coming around a lot faster than I thought." Tori thoughtfully said.

"Hmmm I think you might be right. Do you think she'll come to her senses and do something about it before V-Day?"

"Um no I don't think so. Actually, I kind of hope she doesn't, now that I have all this stuff planned. Plus it'll be super fun to see her reactions throughout the day and to watch her try to figure it out."

"Well, good luck with everything. Hopefully she'll be pretty close to that point by the time the big day comes."

"Thanks Dre. You're a really good friend. Hey and thanks for not being weird about the whole me liking Jade and hoping to date her thing. It means a lot."

"No problem Chica. I got your back!"

"Kay see you tomorrow!"

"See ya Tor." She exited Andre's car and quickly walked up her driveway to her door, unlocking it and yelling a greeting to anyone that was around. Then she hurried up the stairs and into her room, so she could write down everything she had been planning so far.

Tori had figured out how she wanted to deliver most of the things to Jade, and had even written down a time schedule in her notebook. She was completely stuck on the butterfly specimens though. She was debating calling up Andre and talking to him about it, but didn't really think he'd be able to help in any way. She had gone downstairs to get a glass of water and a snack so that hopefully her brain could recharge and she would be able to come up with something. She wasn't really paying attention to where she was going, because she was scrolling through her slap page while walking, but then looked up and saw Trina at the kitchen table. That wasn't the weird thing though. It was that she was rubbing her face with something that looked suspiciously like Sinjin's hair. Gross! She didn't know why things like this still surprised her when it came to Trina, but she still found herself debating on whether she should ask. Her curious nature got the better of her though.

"Trina? Why are you rubbing your face with that… thing that looks like Sinjin's hair?"

"It's not Sinjin's hair! It's a moss and it's supposed to make my skin feel like a baby's bum!"

"Where did you get it?"

"Well Sinjin gave it to me."

"Mhm… right…" She shuddered and decided not to ask any more questions.

She proceeded to make herself a sandwich, and was just putting on the mayonnaise when it hit her. Sinjin! He was weird and creepy. He probably knew someone that would have what she is looking for. She excitedly put the top of her sandwich back on and grinned huge before she dug into it.

"What's got you smiling like a lunatic? I know you like food Tori, but seriously. Tone it down!"

"Me a lunatic? Ha! Riiiight. And it's nothing… I just had a really good idea."

"Oh. Well, go somewhere else. I need to finish this, and you're ruining my concentration."

"Why would you need to be concentrated to wipe "moss" on your face?"

"Because I can't wrinkle my face while doing this! I don't want to look like a hag like you!"

"Okay that's offensive. But luckily for you, I'm in such a good mood, that I'll let it go." She sighed and smiled, dreamily thinking of how V-Day was going to go.

"Okay what's with your face now?" Trina was eyeing her suspiciously.

"What? Nothing!"

"I don't believe you. Oh my God! Did Mark McCallan want to go on a date with you again? Tell him I'm totally hotter than you and that I'm free Friday!" Trina had now jumped up and ran over to Tori trying to grab her phone.

"No!" Tori struggled with trying to get Trina off her. "He didn't call me."

"Well that's good, he's probably just dying to call me anyways!" Trina finally got off of her, moving to sit back at the table.

"Sure Trina. That's what's happening." Tori rolled her eyes at her sister shoving her phone back into her back pocket, away from her sister.

"Okay, but why were you smiling and dreamily staring off into space if you don't have a date?"

"Uhhh no reason?" Tori tried to look innocent and subtly moved closer to the stairs and escape, but Trina wasn't letting it go.

"Hey! What are you hiding from me Tori?"

"Nothing!"

"Tori!"

"Okay fine! I'm planning on asking someone out on Valentine's Day and I just thought of a really great idea."

"Who is it?"

"I'm not going to tell you Trina, I want it to be a surprise, and you're not good at keeping secrets."

"Hey! Yes I am!"

"You're really not. It doesn't matter anyways, I'm still not going to tell you."

"Well what was your great idea about then. At least tell me that." Tori thought it over, but then figured that there was no way she would know that Jade was into butterfly specimens.

"Oh, I just thought about talking to Sinjin about getting a hold of some butterfly specimens."

"Hmm…" Trina narrowed her eyes at Tori, "It's Jade isn't it." Tori's eyes widened.

"WHAT!? NO! uh I mean, no it's not?"

"You don't sound too sure about that Tori." How did Trina get that so fast?

"Umm well, you might be right? How'd you know that the butterfly specimens were for Jade?"

"Cause she has them all over her walls in her bedroom."

"What? How do you know that?"

"I've been in her room, obviously." Trina looked at her like she was the crazy one.

"When were you in Jade's room?"

"Uh we got partnered for a project this one time. I think it was before you went to HA. She said something about not wanting to know where I live. I don't really remember exactly what it was, but we went to her house instead. Also, I didn't really need that to know it was for Jade. I know you've liked her for a long time. I'm just finally glad you're getting the balls to ask her out. Mom and Dad and I were so tired of pretending that you only like boys."

"What? You knew I liked girls? … That I uh… that I like Jade?"

"It was pretty obvious Tori."

"Oh my God! Who else knows?" If Trina knew about her crush on Jade, then everyone else had to know too!

"Oh none of your friend's caught on Tor don't worry. Except maybe Andre. He would smirk at you sometimes when you were talking to her. Mom and Dad and I just knew because you had like a crush on your 2nd grade Music teacher, and you always hated the Disney Princes and thought that the Princesses shouldn't get married to them. Oh, and what was your opinion on Pitch Perfect again?"

"The ending was stupid. What does that have anything to do with this?"

"You hated the ending of Pitch Perfect cause Beca decided to go for Jesse instead of Chloe."

"Did you see that movie! The sexual tension between Beca and Chloe was off the charts! Chloe was so supportive of Beca and never tried to change her. The chemistry between those two was much better than between Beca and Jesse!" Tori through her hands up in exasperation.

"Yeah whatever. You just made my point. We know you like Jade, and we're totally okay with it. Even though I have no idea what you see in that gank, I think she can be pretty cool sometimes, and she makes you happy, so that's all that matters."

"Hey! She's not a gank!" Trina only looked at Tori, "okay fine, she's sometimes a gank, but she's getting better. I think she's realizing she likes me too."

"Well finally! I was wondering whether you'd be one of those tragic unrequited love type stories where the problem was that the both of you were just too scared to tell the other that you love each other."

Tori groaned. "Thanks for having so much confidence in me."

"Hey! It took you long enough. You weren't even going to say anything to me."

"Yeah well that's because I don't want Jade to know until I think she won't run away on me or stab me to death with her scissors. So I'm going the anonymous admirer route."

"Oh that's a good one. Probably a safer bet too. Okay, well good luck Tor. I promise I won't tell anyone. Now go away! I need to finish this!"

"Right thanks Trina… I think."

Weirdest conversation ever! Clearly she was not as sly as she thought she was. Hopefully the rest of her friends hadn't caught on yet. Although today probably threw Robbie and Beck off the scent a bit. They seemed suspicious that her and Andre were maybe on a date or something. Whatever, she would just go to bed and talk to Sinjin tomorrow at school.


	3. Chapter 3

She got to Hollywood Arts early that morning, stopping off at Jet Brew first and deciding to get Jade a coffee too. Just like she expected Sinjin was there early and none of her friends were around yet. It was the perfect opportunity. She put both cups of coffee that she held carefully into her locker and shut the door. Then she walked up to Sinjin and grabbed his arm pulling him into the janitor's closet just in case.

She whirled around, away from the door and looked at the other boy, "Hello, Sinjin."

"Oh my God, this is exactly how I dreamed it would happen." She looked at him weirdly and then slightly shook her head. He was so weird, but she didn't have time for that.

"Listen, I need you to do something for me and you can't tell anyone."

"I understand."

"Good." She turned around to check that the coast was clear once again, "Now, what I need you to do is-" Sinjin was leaning towards her with his eyes closed and his lips puckered.

"Sinjin!"

"Don't talk, you'll ruin it." She sprayed him with some random cleaner thing that was in a spray bottle that she found next to her and he thankfully recoiled.

"This isn't about kissing!"

"And that's how the dream always ends."

"Ugh Sinjin! I don't have time for this! Look, you know those frame things you can get with like dead butterflies in them? They're like specimens or something."

"Oh yeah! Jade has some of those in her room!"

"How do you kno- never mind, don't tell me. Yeah those. You think you can find me some?"

"Oh yeah. I know a guy. Which ones do you want?"

"Um I don't know?"

"Well, what are they for?"

"Um do you know which ones Jade has?"

"Oh yeah totally!"

"Well, could you find me some that she doesn't have?"

"Sure thing Tori. But can I get a kiss as a reward?" Once again, he was leaning towards her. She grabbed the spray bottle once more.

"No! Back away. Just do it. I'll..." She had to think fast for this one, "I'll get you a date with Trina or something!"

"Yay!" Sinjin jumped in excitement, and if the closet they were in were bigger, Tori would have taken a few steps back, as it was, Tori just decided to escape as soon as possible.

"Okay whatever. Thanks Sinjin. Remember, don't say anything to anyone about this. Got it?"

"Yeah okay. Bye Tori." He was coming towards her once again, but she just exited as fast as she could. At least she'd finally solved her problem.

She got back to her locker to grab her coffee and the one she had grabbed for Jade, looking across to Jade's locker and noticing that she was there talking to Beck. As she walked closer to them, Jade looked up and their whole conversation just stopped. She had been too far away to hear what they had been talking about, so she just gave them both a bit of a confused stare.

"Hey Jade, Beck. How are you guys this morning?"

"Good."

"Whatever." The former coming from Beck, and the latter from Jade.

"Um I gotta go. I'll see you later Jade." Beck hastily said, walking away even as he finished talking.

"Okay Beck."

"See you Beck." They both called out at the same time. She looked at Jade then and noticed that she wasn't really making eye contact. Tori wondered if it had anything to do with the conversation she had just been having with Beck, but then she remembered she was still holding Jade's coffee.

"Oh, Jade! I got you a coffee. Black, two sugars, right?" She held it towards Jade, and Jade just cautiously took it out of her hands.

"Um yeah… how'd you know?"

"You always get your coffee like that. I guess it's just something I remember. Anyways, are we still good for tonight?"

"Tonight?" Jade's only looked at her confusedly.

"Yeah, you know… your project?" She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh _riiight_… the project… are you sure you have time? I mean, like you aren't doing anything else, with someone?" So Jade did think that she was dating Andre. She wasn't doing a very good job of nonchalantly asking, but that was probably because Jade was usually blunt and just demanded answers.

"You mean with Andre?"

"Um… No?"

"No, I'm not doing anything with Andre or anyone else, except for _you_. If you were wondering about yesterday, Andre and I are not dating. Nor were we on a date yesterday. He's my best friend and like my brother, so that would just be gross." She cringed at the thought.

"Oh… it's just that Beck said he saw you two yesterday at the mall… just the two of you…" Why was it such a crime to hang out with a guy alone? He's her best friend! Everyone knows this!

"Don't worry about that. All you need to know is that we're not dating." There, that should be pretty straight.

"Ahem… right… Later Vega!" and it was back to the old Jade. Tori rolled her eyes and waved.

* * *

At lunch, Tori found herself at their usual table writing down the latest plans in her notebook. Sinjin had just told her before lunch that he had managed to find this really rare butterfly called the Spicebush Swallow tail. It was perfect really because it was black with pale blue-green spots on the wings and blue on the tail. She couldn't figure out if she wanted to give Jade the specimen last or not. She gave up, and just flipped the page of her notebook, picking up her phone to search flower shops in the area. She started scribbling down a bunch of names with the numbers, happy with the amount she found. It was going to be difficult to find black roses, and she needed them to also be delivered. She had purposefully left any words about flowers out when she was writing down the names to go along with the numbers just in case anyone were to look over and see what she was writing about. It was actually a good thing that she did, because as she was concentrating once again on her phone, Jade took that moment to sit right next to her – very closely – and look over to see what she was preoccupied with.

"Vega."

"Yes Jade?" She didn't even look up, she was too busy looking at a few of the websites on her phone to see if they sold black roses and she wasn't having much luck so far. She crossed out a name that was half way down her page and sighed.

"What are you doing?" There was the demanding tone Jade had been missing this morning.

"Nothing."

"What are you writing then?"

"Um just some names and numbers…"

"Well I can see that! Why?"

"You know, you're being very nosy right now." Tori was still focused on her phone, trying to ignore Jade's increasingly demanding voice.

"Stop trying to change the subject Vega! Tell. Me."

"No."

"What?! No? No!" Jade it seemed, was now in disbelief.

"I believe that's what I said, yes." Tori then sighed in exasperation and finally looked up to Jade's incredulous face.

"No one says no to me!"

She just rolled her eyes, "Well clearly, I'm saying it now. It's none of your business what I'm doing right now."

"But these all look like boys names?" Tori looked over her list once again, and noticed that the top ones did seem to be boys names. This just made her laugh.

"Why do you care? So what if they were?"

"Uh I don't."

"Good." She smirked and kept writing. Sighing yet again as she crossed out another name.

"Okay wait. I just… Are they boys names? Are you trying to figure out who to call back or something?"

"No, they're actually not. Just… something I'm doing for a little… project."

"Oh. Ahem… So you're not going on dates with boys?"

"Nope. I've got my eye set on someone right now though."

"You do?"

Tori smiled giddily, and with her eyes shining replied back with a sighing, "yeah…"

"Well who is it?"

Jade's harsh voice brought her out of her brief daydream. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"I just can't yet."

"Why not yet?"

"I just can't okay?"

"Fine… but do I know them?"

"Mhmm."

"What do they look like?"

"Umm…."

"Just tell me one thing at least!"

"Hmm... Okay, they have black hair."

"But that could be like anyone!" Jade threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

"You said one thing."

"Ugh. I hate you."

"I know." Tori laughed, cause really, she knew Jade didn't and it pleased her that Jade was getting so worked up over whether she was dating and whom she liked.

"Well Jade, this has been a nice sort of conversation, but I really got to go. I have some calls to make." She hurriedly walked away before Jade could say anything.

The black box theater seemed a good enough place to be alone to make some phone calls without anyone noticing. It was after about five different flower shops that she had called before she found one that had black roses. That was also after she had also crossed about five off based on their websites. She threw her arm up in a quiet celebration as she ordered the dozen black roses to be delivered to Jade's house on the morning of Valentines day, before Jade would leave for school. She asked them if she could come down to their shop after school to write a message to be left with the flowers, and she thought maybe she could give them the scissors as well.

She rushed out of the black box theater and over to Andre's locker as fast as she could. She was just so excited about how everything was coming together, and how awesome this year's Valentines Day was going to be. She threw her arms around his neck as she kind of jumped on him and squealed.

"Andre!"

"Tori!" He mocked her back in a faux excited voice.

"Oh my God Andre! Everything is just working out so perfectly, and I can't wait for the day and I just got off the phone with this shop and it's going to be awesome, and I just can't wait!" The words were coming out pretty fast that not even she could really tell what she was actually saying.

"Well um… that's good. I'm glad everything's workin' out for you then."

"It is! It is! It really is!"

"Okay, okay I get it. Jade's totally gonna love it."

"Yeah she is… oh right! I needed to ask you if you could maybe take me to this flower shop after school today. They have black roses and I'm gonna have them delivered to her in the morning. I just want to write them a message and maybe give them the pair of scissors I bought."

"The scissors you bought?"

"Yeah, you know, just in case she really hates them, and would rather chop them up."

"Mhmm. Cause that's normal."

"Hey! I like how unique she is. I just want to make sure that she'll like everything I do on that day."

"Everything you do for whom?"

"Oh hey Beck… Didn't see you there." Tori nervously looked at him, wondering how long exactly he had been standing there.

"Right, um Tor I gotta get to class, but I'll be fine for tonight." He winked at her as he left.

"Tori is there something going on between you and Andre?" As much as Tori was frustrated that everyone was thinking she was dating Andre, she was kind of glad he had forgotten his previous question.

"No Beck, we're just best friends."

"Okay but, you know none of us would care if there was right? I'd like to think we're all pretty supportive friends."

"Oh I know Beck, but really, there's nothing going on between the two of us. I like someone else anyways." His grin widened at that.

"You do?"

"Um yeah, I do." She saw Jade looking suspiciously at the both of them from the corner of her eye, and she looked down at her watch, hoping that it was close to when class would start again. Stupid Andre, for leaving her alone with Beck! He was probably getting ideas now.

"Hey! Would you look at the time? I gotta go!" She scurried down the hall, flashing Jade a quick smile, which turned bigger at the glare she got, and then breathed a sigh of relief as she entered her next class. She was a bit early, but it was better than trying to make awkward conversation with Beck who had already tried once before to get her to go out with him.

* * *

This time the day went by slower than she wanted, but she finally found herself at her locker, humming as she put the last of her books away and remembered to put her notebook into her bag. She closed her locker and once again jumped as it revealed Jade's face as she leaned against the locker next to Tori's.

"Oh my God! Jade, please stop doing that. One day, you'll scare me so bad I'll get a heart attack and die!" She was a bit overdramatic, but only because Jade really shocked her and threw her off guard.

"Then that would be a really good day." Was Jade's unsurprising reply.

"Mmm," She made a non-committal noise, still trying to figure out what Jade was doing here. "So… why are you here?" Jade just looked at her blankly, but she refused to get anxious like everyone else always did when Jade would stare at them. Finally Jade's face took on a more curious expression.

"Is it Beck?"

"Is what Beck?" Tori was confused. What was Jade talking about?

"Your crush that you have. Is it Beck? He has black hair."

Realization finally dawned on Tori, "Oh… that… Yeah, um it's not Beck."

"But I saw you guys talking earlier."

"Ugh! Jade just because I hang out or talk with some boy, doesn't mean I have some crush on them. We can just be friends! Who said anything about a boy anyways?" Oh gosh, she just let that slip, didn't she? Now Jade would know she wasn't interested in a boy, and there really weren't that many black haired girls around here that she would be interested in.

"What? What do you mean?" Tori decided to play innocent.

"What do I mean about what?"

"What did you mean when you said, 'who said anything about a boy anyways'?" She mocked Tori in that stupid Southern accent.

"I don't talk like that!"

"I don't talk like that!"

"I don't!"

"Yeah, you do."

"No, I don't."

"Yeah you- never mind. I'm right and you know it." Jade looked at her, arms crossed, and a victorious look on her face.

"No, you're not."

"Yes I am!"

"No, you're not." This was getting too fun, and Jade was also getting off topic.

"NO! Stop it. What did you mean?"

"What did I mean about what?" Tori was finding it so hard not to laugh now, especially when she saw how frustrated Jade was getting.

"We are seriously not doing this again. Tori. What. Did. You. Mean?" Again with the breaking up of words. Tori really hated when Jade did that.

"You know Jade, as much as I am enjoying this riveting conversation we are currently having, I actually need to go." Which was not a lie, as she had just seen Andre wave at her from down the hallway. She walked away from Jade leaving her fuming by her locker, but seemingly too shocked to move.

"No! Vega, you come back here!"

"Sorry Jade, Andre and I really have somewhere to be." Without a second look back, she grabbed Andre's arm, and just about yanked him out of the school. That was a close one.

"What was that about?" Tori heard a ringing coming from her cell phone, she dug it out of her back pocket and looked at the screen to see Jade was calling.

"Uh just a sec Dre. It's Jade." He looked at her with his eyebrows raised, but she ignored him, sliding her finger across the screen to answer the call.

"Jadey! So nice of you to call." Tori chirpily answered.

"Do NOT call me that Vega."

"Okay, Jadelyn. What is it you need?"

"You said you'd help me with my project today."

"Ohhh right. I kinda forgot about that… when is it due?" Tori actually had forgotten, but this was due to all the excitement of her plans coming through today.

"It's due this Friday." Jade said in a somewhat exasperated tone.

"Hmmm… okay, so two days… What did you need me to do?"

"You just need to be this one character for me. It's for my script writing class, and there had to be two characters, and the film only needs to be about 5 minutes, so it's just a short scene."

"Okay well, could you come over to my house tonight around 7? That could work. I'm really sorry that I forgot Jade, something just… came up." Andre rolled his eyes at her at this point, thinking it somewhat ridiculous that Tori forgot she was going to be hanging out with Jade because she got so excited about flowers.

"Is your sister going to be around?"

"No actually, I'm pretty sure she told me she was auditioning for this Spanish show today. So she'll be gone by then and my parents are in San Diego for the rest of this week, so they aren't home either."

"See you at 7 then." Jade hung up and Tori just looked at her phone, rolling her eyes at Jade's typical behaviour. But she was glad they had worked it out. Tori couldn't believe that she had forgotten that she would be hanging out with Jade after school today, but she had just gotten so caught up in all of her plans. Then again she also became flustered with Jade after school, and didn't want her to catch on, so she didn't stick around for very long. She was finally brought out of all these thoughts when Andre spoke.

"So Chica, you gonna spill or what?"

"Oh about after school or the phone conversation I just had?"

"Obviously about after school, I was here for the phone call, I'm pretty sure I know what happened." Andre said impatiently.

"Okay, okay jeez!" She stood there for a minute thinking about the after school encounter with Jade. But then she noticed that Andre was staring at her pointedly once again. "uh… I kinda told Jade today at lunch that I was crushing on someone, and she wanted to know who it was. I told her I wouldn't tell, and then she asked me for one identifying feature. I told her the person had black hair. Then later she saw me talking to Beck, and he found out too, and I think he wanted to ask me out, and that is _so_ not happening, but then she asked me if it was him, and I sorta let it out that I maybe wasn't necessarily interested in boys, and then she wanted to know what I meant, and I just sort of changed the subject so she wouldn't know. I totally think she was getting jealous all today though."

"From what I saw, I think you're right." Andre smirked at her in return.

"Yeah it was actually pretty fun trying to get her off topic, I was being obnoxiously annoying. It's just so fun watching her get so worked up!" Tori laughed at the expression she remembered Jade having.

"Alright, but you don't want her to get too jealous. Who knows what would happen then."

"Oh you're right. I'll just have to play it cool I guess. I don't really know what to do to not make her jealous, cause she keeps on assuming things that are completely untrue, and I'm always telling her the truth." Andre looked at her pointedly.

"Okay, well not the whole truth… but like the truth about who I'm dating. And if she asked, I would tell her. I mean, if she asked me if I liked her, I would tell her. But she hasn't yet, so we're still good."

"Well it's all on you chica, so do what you think is best." They hopped into Andre's Honda Civic and then Tori continued their conversation.

"It's all gonna be fine Andre. There's only like a week and a half left, and then she'll know."

"She'll know? Or she'll guess?"

"No, I think… I think I'll let her know with the last thing I give her on V-Day."

"You sure?"

"Um Y-Yeah. I'm sure. I don't want to keep running around in circles with her after this. If I give her all these things on V-Day, I want her to know that they were from me, and I want her to know that I like her. Otherwise, what's the point? If she doesn't like me, then at least I know. Right?"

"I think that's a good idea. If she doesn't like you after all the awesome things you planned for her, then I don't know when she will. You'll be fine Tor. It's all gonna work out alright. So, where are we heading to?"

"Could we stop at my house real quick? I just need to pick up the note I have for Jade and the scissors I bought."

"Yeah sure."

"Oh yeah, and then we're going to David's Flowers. I can't believe I actually managed to find a place that had black roses. I was getting worried with the amount of flower shops that didn't. It's a good thing I started planning this so early."

"Everything's been coming together nicely. I'm a little surprised that the biggest hiccup you've had is Jade getting jealous and assuming you're dating anyone you talk to."

"Yeah, but there was so much potential for disaster! I had to sneak into Jade's house and her room while she was in it the whole time."

"Seriously? What's her room like?"

"I'm not telling you! That's personal. Besides, Jade's my future girlfriend and therefore, I have the duty of protecting her. I can't let out all her secrets!"

"Man she must have some creepy stuff in there!"

"Okay, that's true, but it's like still kind of normal… for Jade at least. Although I was surprised by a few things."

"Like what?"

"Nice try Dre, but like I said, that's my future girlfriend we're talking about."

"Whatever. I like that you're getting so optimistic."

"I can't help it! I've put so much work into this, that it can't fail. Plus, I mean really, ask anyone and they would tell you what a hot couple we'd make."

"That's definitely true," he winked at her, "but they would also tell you they never saw it coming."

"Okay that's only if you ask the people who don't really know Jade. You even knew she likes me!"

"Yeah clearly she wasn't very successful at hiding her obvious liking for you. But she did put out a nice effort. I almost believed it, but man that girl is possessive and protective. I seriously thought she was going to kill Ryder! Also, you should have seen her when she found out about Steven, I avoided Jade like she was the plague the rest of the day after that. Not that I don't already think she's a plague."

"Hey! Need I remind you again? Future. Girlfriend."

"I get it! She's not a plague to you. Well, she won't be soon enough."

"Good. Now, just wait here, and I'll be back in five."

* * *

The trip to the flower shop went surprisingly well, they were happy to follow Tori's request and agreed to give Jade the scissors at the same time. She did have to explain a little bit about Jade, but it was probably a good thing, that way the delivery man had a bit of a head's up for when they actually delivered the flowers to Jade. Handing a pair of scissors to a freshly awoken Jade was maybe not the best idea, which was why Tori was glad it wasn't her delivering them, and also that she would be anonymous at first. Andre had dropped her off back at home just as it was turning 4, giving her plenty of time to prepare for Jade coming. She was super giddy not only from just coming back from the flower shop, but also because she would see Jade in a few hours. She was glad no one was home because she was singing and dancing around the house, cleaning up a bit. There were mostly random things of Trina's lying around, so she gathered everything and shoved it back into Trina's room, and by then she was hungry, so she made herself some pasta. As Tori waited for the time when Jade would come over, she checked that the camera her dad had was fully charged and properly functioning from the last time Trina used it just in case Jade needed it when they were filming later on. Then she went and got her homework, hurrying to get it done before Jade would get there.

Tori finally heard the doorbell go when she just put away her English homework. With a smile she bounded to the door and opened it up to see her Jade standing there looking as beautiful as ever. Jade didn't even wait for Tori to greet her or welcome her in, but rather just brushed past Tori and plopped her bag onto their couch.

"Hello to you too, Jade." Tori said in amusement as she closed the door and locked it.

"Whatever Vega. Here's the script." She thrust a few pages into Tori's hands, and Tori went over to the kitchen table to grab her glasses. Putting them on, she read over the script a few times, trying to figure out her character's mood and point of view. Jade looked bored sitting on the couch, and Tori watched in amusement as she reached into her boot and pulled out a pair of scissors and started trimming the ends of her hair.

"Right, so this doesn't seem too bad. I think I have most of these lines fairly memorized already."

"Good. I'll set things up then." Jade snatched her bag off Tori's couch and went into the kitchen.

"I grabbed my dad's camera if you need it for shooting." Jade looked up at her and just nodded as she noticed where Tori was pointing to the camera sitting on the table.

The scene Jade had written did not surprise Tori at all with it's dark themes. Basically, it was about a housewife who invites in the new neighbour from across the street, who looks really nice and innocent, but really is a psycho killer. It really didn't take them long to film all the scenes, especially since they could film two angles at once with Tori's extra camera. Jade could put the footage together tomorrow and still have the night to change anything if she needed to before she had to hand it in. It was now close to 9, and Tori and Jade had wrapped up the shooting, and were just awkwardly standing in the kitchen.

"So Tori, care to tell me what you meant with our earlier conversation at school?"

"I would have thought that you'd forgotten about that by now." Really Tori had been hoping Jade had forgotten.

"I don't forget anything."

"Well then I would have said that you wouldn't care."

"Usually that's the case. But with your previous dating history at Hollywood Arts, I figure, if I know before hand who it is you're crushing on, I can give you some advice before it's too late."

"Well that's nice of you." It actually did seem logical, since Jade had been pretty perceptive of the guys she had dated before.

"Yes well, that part can stay between us. Now, would you tell me who it is?"

"Nope."

"But why not? I can make sure that he's not a douche."

"Well you could… if it were a he."

"See, now you are implying once again that it is not a he that you're crushing on."

"Your question being?"

"Are you crushing on a girl?"

"…. Yes." Tori reluctantly answered. She still wouldn't tell Jade that it was her unless she outright asked.

"Well I guess that's a step up already, since most guys that go to HA are stupid pricks."

"Hey! Andre isn't!"

"Yeah well, you already explained to me that it isn't Andre. I wasn't including him anyways, it just seems that you attract the assholes." Tori thought about all the guys she had dated in the past, and she guessed that Jade was right in her observation. It didn't really matter though, because those guys she had dated were just covers anyway. They were really handsome, and Tori figured using guys that were very manly would attract no suspicion. If only she had known that her family knew all along.

"Right well, this time it's not a guy so… yay for that." Tori looked off to the side, noting that by some people's opinion Jade could be labeled as an asshole. But Tori knew that she would be a good girlfriend anyways, and that she wouldn't treat Tori like Tori's previous boyfriends had. "Why don't we put in a movie or something." Tori said desperately trying to change the subject as Jade eyed her suspiciously.

"Are you trying to change the subject?"

"Yes. You're not going to get it out of me who it is right now, but you'll know soon enough. So we might as well do something that's not boring."

"Fine. But we're not watching a romantic comedy, or anything else stupid. I'll pick the movie."

"Fine, here's the remote." Tori had gotten up to pop some popcorn while Jade searched through the movies on demand. Tori sat on the couch after putting the popcorn into a bowl as Jade sat back comfortably, happy with her movie choice. It was something Tori had never heard of, but she could already tell from the beginning that it was going to be scary. Tori had inched closer and closer to Jade as the movie wore on, and finally just clung to her with her head nestled into Jade's neck when a character died or was being stalked and killed. Jade surprisingly didn't say anything to Tori being scared or clutching Jade tighter every now and then, but she would always laugh when the scariest parts were playing. Tori couldn't understand how anyone could laugh at such things.

"It's because it's so easy to tell it's all fake." Jade answered Tori's question. Tori hadn't even noticed she had spoken that last part out loud. Tori could see out of the corner of her eye that Jade was just smirking at her, and it almost felt as if they had done this so many times before, and it just felt so natural to be curled into Jade's side. That's when she knew she had made the right decision in pursuing Jade. She wasn't so worried about how Jade would react on Valentines Day anymore.

The movie shortly ended, and they both looked at the time. Jade said that it was getting too late, and that she needed to get home.

"Well, it was nice having you over Jade. I hope your movie turns out well. Let me know if you need to reshoot anything. I should be available all evening tomorrow."

"Thanks, Tori." Tori looked surprised at Jade, not only because she said thank-you but because she called her by her first name too. She decided not to comment on it however, and just walked Jade to the door, locking it back up when she left. She then trudged up the stairs, happy with how the day turned out, and that she had gotten a little further with Jade.


	4. Chapter 4

Tori woke up the next day with a gigantic smile on her face, having just woken up from a dream about Jade. With a blissful sigh, she got ready for the day, grabbing an apple as she left the house. Andre had agreed to pick her up, which she was super thankful for, since she would rather not have an awkward relationship conversation with Trina, or have to do something else weird for her. They were at Tori's locker talking when she jumped at the squeal she heard coming down the hallway, and the distinct calling of her name.

"Toooorrrriiii!" Tori didn't even have enough time to look up from her conversation with Andre, before there was a ball of red attached to her.

"Uh heeyy Cat." Tori awkwardly patted Cat's back as she still clung to her.

"Tori! Guess what?"

"Um what?" Tori looked at the girl in her arms, but Cat just paused, and then a blank look came across her face.

"I don't remember." Tori looked at her quizzically. Cat had been so excited about something that she had just about mauled Tori and now she couldn't remember what it was? That girl was just so weird sometimes.

"Riiight. Um could you get off me now?"

"Okay!" Cat finally let go of Tori from her surprisingly strong hold and turned around to see Andre standing there too.

"Uh hey little red." Andre sort of just waved at her awkwardly.

"Andre!" It felt like déjà vu with the way that Cat threw herself now onto Andre.

"Yeah. Um Tori? A little help?" Andre looked at her pleadingly.

"Cat! I have candy!" She always had a little stash just for these very reasons.

"Yay!" Tori handed her strand of licorice, and Andre gave her a look of relief.

"Oh! I remember!"

"Yeah?"

"Someone left me a card in my locker!" Cat was now excitedly jumping up and down in one spot.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! It's red, and it said nice things and it had some candy with it, and who do you think put it there?"

"Uh I have no idea. What about you Andre?" Tori turned to Andre who had a somewhat frightened look on his face.

"Um uh.. I d-don't… uh I.., uh gotta go!" Andre scurried down the hallway and Tori just looked on confused.

"Okay then. Cat um I actually have to go too."

"Hey you know one time, my brother told me that he had to go, but then we started playing this game called run from the cops, but then we got caught."

"Riiightt. Well, this has been fun-"

"Yay!"

"Mhmm, bye cat."

"Bye Tori!" Tori could hear Cat's giggling as she walked down the hallway to her next class. She pulled out her notebook from her bag as she walked, still thinking of who could have put the card and candy in Cat's locker. She was just thinking about Andre's weird behaviour when she was startled once again, but this time by Jade.

"So is it Cat?"

"Jade! Where'd you come from?"

"Is it Cat?" She hated when Jade ignored her questions. She also really hoped that Jade hadn't been standing close enough to overhear her conversation with Andre before Cat had come along. They had been talking about the rare butterfly specimen that Sinjin had managed to find her.

"What are you talking about Jade?"

"Yesterday you told me you had a crush on someone, and then you said that it wasn't a guy, so are you interested in Cat?"

"Riiight… I remember that conversation…"

"Yeah. So?" Jade looked at Tori with an expectant expression. "Don't make me ask again Vega. You're on my last nerve!"

"Woah, calm down Jade. You clearly forgot I also told you that they had black hair. So no, it's not Cat."

"Yeah but Cat wore a black wig that one time in that stupid play that Sikowitz made us do, and the way you've been acting every time I try to ask you about this, it would just be like you to tell me an identifying feature that's not really identifying."

Tori just rolled her eyes and said, "It's not Cat."

"Seriously? But she was raving to me just this morning about how some person gave her this stupidly romantic card that had candy with it and you always have candy on you for her, so really, be honest, is it her?"

"No Jade! It's not Cat!" Tori was getting frustrated with Jade now. She must be seriously jealous if she was jumping to such ridiculous conclusions. All she had left to do was accuse her of liking Rob-

"Is it Robbie?!"

"Womp there it is."

"What?"

"Jade, just stop it. I'm not going to tell you, cause all you're doing is jumping to conclusions and just guessing that it's one of our friends. And no, it's obviously not Robbie! Ew!"

"Oh thank God for that! I don't think I would be able to even eat lunch if that ever happened."

"Ditto."

"Would you just tell me who it is?"

"Nope."

"But why? Why does it matter if I know?"

"Why are you so interested in knowing?" Jade hated when people answered her with a question, but Tori didn't care. Even though it was kind of adorable how jealous Jade could be of technically herself, it was getting kind of annoying, so Tori had no problem with being annoying right back. It also had the added bonus of flustering Jade, as her cheeks had suddenly gotten a pink tinge.

"Oh um, I'm not?"

"Really? All you've been doing the past few days is eyeing me suspiciously and trying to know who my crush is. So why do you care so much?"

"Um I just don't want you going out with another douche. You have a bad track record."

"You've already told me that, but really, I think I'll be fine. I'll keep it in mind though. See you later Jade."

"No! Vega, stop walking away from me!" Tori just rolled her eyes, smirking and chuckling a little at the ridiculousness of Jade. Thank goodness this would all be over in a week.

She was just about to walk into her next classroom when she heard a psst noise coming from her right. She glanced over and noticed Sinjin's moppy bob of hair first before she noticed that he was gesturing to her. She walked towards him, and then he creepily whispered, "follow me."

They walked to the black box theater and went into the back by where the props were kept. Sinjin dug around a bit, and then pulled out a frame, presenting it with an awkward flourish to Tori. She gasped when she saw the butterfly encased inside.

"It's beautiful. Thank you so much Sinjin!"

"Yeah totally, no problem Tori. So does Friday work for your sister?"

"Of course! She'll just meet you at Nozu's at 7 okay?"

"Perfect!" She watched him dance his way out of the theater, but she ignored his weird ways, and just looked at the butterfly once more. Finally, everything she needed was ready to go for the big day. Now she just had to wait for it to come.

* * *

Tori spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to get Trina to go out with Sinjin. She couldn't tell Trina that it was Sinjin she'd be going out with because then she would never go. So she decided to just tell Trina that she had a date on Friday at Nozu's for 7 and hope that Trina would just assume it's Mark McCallan. It would probably work, especially since Trina would now assume that Tori had nothing to hide and wouldn't be taking any dates from any guys anytime soon. She'd have to time it right though, to prevent Trina from asking too many questions.

It was just her luck that Trina was sitting in the living room putting her feet in some weird mixture when she got home from school. That meant that Trina would not be able to follow her upstairs after she delivered the news.

"Hey Trin?"

"Yeah Tor." Trina didn't even look up from what she was doing to her feet.

"I got you a date for tomorrow. Nozu's at 7, you can meet him there."

"Really?! Oh my God Tori, you're the best! I knew letting you know I knew your preference for the ladies was a good idea. Who's it with?"

"Sorry Trin, I have to get some homework done. Have fun with your date." Tori smirked evilly as she scampered up the stairs, knowing that Trina would be really mad tomorrow after the date, but Tori already had a plan. She had talked to Mark today and managed to convince him to take Trina out on Saturday. There's no way Trina could stay mad at her for long if she had that news.

Once upstairs and in her room she looked through the cards she had already written for Jade and double checked to make sure that everything was spelled correctly and that she couldn't tell who it was from the handwriting. Those calligraphy classes she had taken last year were really paying off now. Satisfied that everything was good and would go according to plan, Tori decided she just needed to wait until next week when her plan would finally be put into motion.


	5. Chapter 5

Tori got up in her usual cheery mood, happy that she would only have to wait another week before it would finally be Valentines Day. She decided that she would bring Jade another coffee this morning because she was in the mood for one herself and she had also woken up early enough to be able to walk to school and stop at Jet Brew without being late. Andre was busy this morning taking his grandma somewhere and Tori wasn't going to willingly be in a car with her again, especially with what happened last time. Going with Trina wasn't the greatest option either because she would just have to answer questions about the date Tori had set her up on tonight, and she really wasn't that great at lying.

When Tori walked into Hollywood Arts she looked towards Jade's locker, but didn't see the black haired girl, but rather Sinjin hovering there instead. He creepily smiled at her and she nodded at him letting him know that everything for tonight was set up and then hurriedly walked towards her own locker to get away from him. She really didn't need him getting any ideas.

Tori looked to her left as she spun the code into her lock, not even needing to look to get it open. She noticed that Jade was actually talking to Beck as they both stood by his locker. Tori was happy to have located Jade, because she was getting a little nervous that she wouldn't be at school today and then Tori would have to find someone else to drink the coffee she had brought, but she didn't know anyone else who liked black coffee with two sugars. Their conversation didn't look too serious, so Tori didn't feel bad interrupting them.

"Hey Jade!" She called over to her, not moving from her locker, but simultaneously putting her bag away.

"What do you want Vega?"

"Come here a minute." Tori smiled at her while Jade just looked her usual grumpy self, and Beck just had a curious look on his face.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Tori rolled her eyes at Jade's usual snark.

"Well if you don't want this coffee that I got you, then fine. I'll just have to find someone else who wants it… Hey Beck? You want this coffee?" Beck only had time to open his mouth, but Jade didn't let him actually say anything.

"No! I'll take the coffee." They both stayed where they were just watching each other from across the hall.

"Well I'm not going to come to you Jade, I already bought you a coffee." Jade grumpily stomped over to Tori then, and Tori just smirked at her, knowing she could get Jade to do what she wanted despite Jade's reluctance.

"Here you go Jade." Tori gave her a genuine soft smile then, looking into her blue green eyes. Jade took a big sip of the coffee and her face lost a bit of its grumpiness then, and Tori declared a success.

"Um thanks… I needed this." Tori was a bit surprised that Jade was even thanking her, but ignored it, knowing that Jade wouldn't want her to point it out.

"Yeah you looked a bit grumpier than usual this morning." Tori replied thoughtfully.

"Yeah uh didn't get a lot of sleep last night…"

"That'll do it. I gotta get to class, but I'll see you at lunch Jade."

"Whatever." And the real Jade was back. Tori chuckled and left, her English book in her hands, waving to Beck when she passed him, smiling at the still confused look on his face.

Tori walked into her classroom, finding her seat next to a brunette named Jemma. Tori didn't really know her that well, but the few conversations Tori had had with her had been quite nice. Tori hadn't really found it that hard to be friends with people, because everyone liked her. Everyone, except for Jade that is. Jade had really been the first person she met that didn't like her right away and for some reason, Tori quite liked that about her. Tori had to try harder with Jade and she knew now that she had succeeded even if Jade didn't.

Jemma greeted her as usual, with a "Good morning Tori!" to which Tori smiled and returned the greeting.

"So what is your story about?" Jemma asked turning around somewhat in her seat to face her. Their English class had just started a unit on short stories just a few days ago, and this period they were meant to be working on the rough draft. They had no restrictions on what to write about, which Tori was thankful for.

"Well, I'm not quite sure yet. I was originally gonna right something that took place here in high school, but lately I've been reading some adventurey type stories, and I think I have a good idea for one. It's gonna be about this team of agents that are part of a secret organization that go around protecting the world. Kind of like all the super hero stuff that's all out right now. I've only really gotten as far as that idea though. I'm trying to think of a good mission for them to be on." Jemma nodded along while Tori was talking with rapt attention and smiled when she was done.

"How about you? What are you writing about?" Tori asked.

"Oh, mine's more of a dystopian type story, but with a little Greek mythology thrown in." Jemma brightly answered.

Tori cocked her head, "Hmm… I didn't know you were into that."

"Yeah, my mom would always tell me those stories when I was young, so I know them pretty well. It'll be fun to connect them throughout the story, but I'm going to make sure there are a bunch of twists too."

"Awesome! Maybe you'll let me read yours when you're done. It's sounds like it's going to be interesting." She couldn't imagine trying to put that kind of a story together, but Jemma had always been really smart, and so Tori knew it would be a great story.

"Definitely! But you'll have to let me read yours too!" Jemma also seemed excited about her story. Tori just hoped that it was as good as Jemma's was going to be.

"We'll do a swap!" Tori smiled excitedly at her. Jemma was about to say something more, but their teacher walked in right then, and started class. They were told to start writing their rough drafts and that there was to be no talking since it was an individual assignment. Jemma and Tori just smiled at each other for a moment, before Tori turned back straight in her seat and pulled out her notebook to start getting down some ideas.

She had been staring blankly ahead for the last five minutes of class when a hand waving in front of her face brought her out of her daze.

"Tori! Class is over you goof!" Jemma was smiling at her, all her books packed, and Tori noticed that they were the last ones left. Tori blushed as she remembered that she had not actually been thinking about her story at all, but daydreaming about Jade.

"Sorry. I was just… thinking… about something."

Jemma grinned at her, "Something or _someone_?"

Tori sheepishly smiled, "well, it may have been about someone…"

"Mhmm I thought so." Jemma chuckled. "Come on, or we'll be late for our next class."

"Right, let's go." Tori hastily shoved her notebook into her bag and got up to follow Jemma out.

"So Tori, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the movies tomorrow. Have you seen The Winter Soldier? I was thinking during class that it might help you with your story a bit since it's a super hero movie."

"Oh! I didn't think of that. I haven't seen it yet actually."

"So would you go with me?" Tori glanced sideways at Jemma. She was playing with her fingers, and if Tori didn't know any better, she would say Jemma was nervous.

"I'd love to. I haven't gone to see a movie in so long. Thanks for asking!"

Jemma's smile was back on her face and she was about to say something more, when the warning bell rang.

"Chiz! We keep getting interrupted it seems."

"I know right? Why don't you sit with me at lunch and we can work out the details for tomorrow.

"Perfect! I have Bio just before, what class are you?"

"Oh, I've got history. I think it's just down the hall. I'll meet you at your class then."

"Alright, see you later Tori!"

"See ya Jemma." Tori rushed then to her next class, not wanting to be late and thankful that she had left her book in her bag so she didn't have to detour to her locker.

* * *

Tori's history class got let out early that day, so Tori found herself waiting by the door to Jemma's bio class, waiting on the brunette. It wasn't long before the bell rang and the two of them made their way down the hallway to Tori's lunch table, stopping at the grub truck on the way. She let Jemma sit down first, sliding into the seat next to her with Andre on her other side.

"Guys, this is Jemma. Jemma that's Beck, Robbie, Cat and Andre." Tori pointed them out in a clockwise direction, and they all either nodded or said a quick hello and then continued with their pervious conversations. Tori turned a little so that she was facing Jemma a little more.

"So what time were you thinking for tomorrow?"

"Oh whenever is fine with me, I'm not really doing anything tomorrow at all." Jemma said happily.

"Okay, I'm not really doing anything tomorrow either, so would you want to go out for dinner before hand? I heard that new Thai place across from Nozu's is really good."

"Oh I love Thai food! That would be lovely. Does 6:30 work for you then? I can pick you up."

"That's perfect. I'll check tonight to see when the movie's playing, and if we need to change the time a bit I'll text you to let you know."

"Awesome. Now I can't wait for tomorrow. I haven't been to the movies in so long!"

"Me either." Tori smiled at her, then turned to her lunch, unwrapping her burrito and taking a rather large bite from it.

"Who's this?" A strong impatient voice came from Tori's left. She looked up and smirked.

"Nice to see you too Jade."

"I said, who's this?" Jade pointedly glared at Tori.

"You know, you aren't giving off a very good first impression. But I'll be the better person in this. This Jade, is Jemma."

"It's nice to meet you Jade." Jemma politely offered her hand, but Jade just ignored her, and slid down between Beck and Robbie, shoving Robbie over a bit to make more room.

"Whatever. Why is she here?"

"I do have other friends Jade, but Jemma's here because we wanted to have lunch together."

"Well yes, and Tori and I had to confirm some plans for tomorrow." Jemma helpfully added while smiling at Jade.

"Plans? What plans?"

"Oh, Tori and I are going to the movies tomorrow–"

"-and having dinner at that new Thai place before." Tori finished Jemma's sentence.

"So it's like a date." Jade said through gritted teeth.

"I wouldn't really call it that Jade, but whatever floats your boat." Tori shrugged.

The rest of lunch proceeded with Tori talking with Jemma and getting to know her better while Jade sat across glaring at the both of them. Tori ignored it, chalking it up to Jade's usual unfriendliness to new people and new situations. When lunch was over, Tori walked Jemma to her locker where they exchanged numbers before Tori made her way to her own.

* * *

The day went by fast for Tori, now that she had something to look forward to for the weekend. She was excited to be going with Jemma to the movies, because she was rather stuck on her story, and she knew that if she didn't get out of the house, she would just think about the next week and get all anxious about whether her plan would work or not.

Tori was glad she had walked to school that day, because it meant that by the time she got home Trina would be in full on diva mode getting ready for her date. Which also meant that Tori would face fewer questions.

She quietly closed the door to their house, and snuck up the stairs to her room, breathing a sigh of relief as she managed to get there with no sightings of Trina. As she emptied her school bag to get started on her homework, she heard Trina's awful singing coming from the direction of their shared bathroom and suddenly she was thankful that Trina thought so highly of herself, because otherwise she would never have been able to trick her into going on a date with Sinjin.

Tori got started on her homework, wanting to finish before the weekend really started and she also had nothing to do since Andre was taking his grandma to some sort of appointment and Cat said she was going to the Unicorn Palace, whatever that was.

Tori was just finishing her math homework when she heard their front door slam and she sighed in relief, knowing she was now home alone. She knew she wasn't going to get any closer on her short story that night, so she closed her books and made her way downstairs to find something to eat. She was staring blankly into the fridge when she heard the door bell ring. Curious as to who could possibly be at her door, Tori slowly walked towards it, and reached for the handle when it went off a few more times. Throwing the door open, she stared confusedly into the face of one Jade West.

"Jade. Did I forget we had plans or something? You handed your short film in today right?"

"Grab your jacket and keys, you're coming with me."

"Okay but where-"

"Let's go Vega!" Tori sighed exasperatedly and grabbed her jacket, recognizing Jade in a stubborn withholding mood. She dug into her pocket for her keys and locked the door behind her.

"Any day now Vega!"

"Relax Jade, geez! I can't believe I'm even willingly going with you somewhere, especially since you aren't even telling me where we're going. You're probably going to take me to some deserted road to try to kill me again!"

"I didn't try to kill you. I was just having some fun scaring you."

"Well it was a success."

"Whatever, get in the car." Tori just stood still and stared at Jade. "Vega! I'm not going to hurt you okay? Would you just get in?"

"Fine. But I'm warning you Jade, if this is just a trick-"

"You'll what? Blind me with kindness?" Get in the car or we'll be late." Tori reluctantly got in the car and fastened her seatbelt. She then turned to Jade.

"Late for what exactly?"

"You ask too many questions." Jade just replied, turning up the volume on the radio and effectively making it so they couldn't talk anymore. They drove for about fifteen minutes, Tori just looking out the window the whole time trying to figure out exactly where Jade was taking her, and every once in a while glancing down at her phone to make sure she still had service. She was just about to read a text from Andre when she felt the car stop, and looked up to see Jade already out of the car and a building in front of them that read Aventine Trattoria. She sat there staring at the sign to the Italian restaurant, and didn't notice that Jade had opened her door and was waiting for her to step out of the car.

"I already told you we're going to be late, so getting out of the car would be nice Tori."

"Uh Jade, this is Aventine Trattoria."

"Yes, great observations skills you got there Vega, you should be a detective instead of a singer."

"There's like a six month wait for reservations here!"

"Usually yes."

"Usually?"

"You like Italian food right? Actually, everybody does, get out of the car so we can eat."

"Right." Tori cautiously got out of the car, still shocked that Jade had brought her to a fancy Italian restaurant. She grabbed onto Jade's offered hand and quickened her pace to match Jade's as they made their way across the parking lot and into the restaurant. Jade had a slight smile on her face as she reached the hostess' table.

"Ah, Miss West, it's nice to see you again. You have your usual table tonight?"

"I do. Thanks Jeffrey."

"No problem. Right this way Miss West." Tori just watched this whole interaction, shocked into silence and followed Jade to a table near the back. The restaurant had a rustic feel with exposed brick walls and chandeliers made out of old iron. There was even a tree in the center wrapped in twinkling lights. Tori was so busy looking at her surroundings that she almost didn't notice Jade stopping in front of her, almost walking right into her back.

"I'll let Mr. Torregiani know you're here then. I'm sure he'll want to say hello."

"Thank you again Jeffrey." Jade pulled out Tori's chair and then sat in her own seat, sipping the water that was already on the table.

"Jade, I'm just so confused. How did you – I mean, how do you know…? Never mind, just tell me why exactly you brought me to this super fancy restaurant that is like super hard to get into?"

"Well, I happen to know one of the owners here, he's a good friend of my mom's and I'm pretty sure you mentioned you like Italian food once, so I took you here. Did you have anything better to do with your Friday night?"

"Well no, I was home alone but-"

"Just enjoy it Vega. And stop asking so many questions!" Tori just sighed and sipped at her own water, finally picking up the menu to look through it.

"Jade! The prices here are crazy! I can't afford any of this!"

"Well that's fine. I'll be paying for you anyways. Order anything you want."

"What? Jade no! I couldn't possibly let you-"

"Well too bad, cause I'm paying for you anyways. Plus, like I said, I know the owners, it won't be nearly as bad as you think."

Jade just folded her menu and put it down then, looking across at Tori as she still perused the menu.

"You staring at me isn't going to help me decide what to eat. What do you recommend?"

"Well it sort of depends on what kind of mood you're in. The pasta here is delicious, but they also make a really good pizza. It's a thin crust and they make it in a wood oven."

"Why don't you surprise me, and order for me?"

"I can do that." Jade smiled at her then, and Tori just stared across at her, lost in thoughts of how weird Jade was acting. It was like once they entered the restaurant, Jade was a completely different person. Although Tori had seen Jade act numerous times, it finally hit her how good Jade really was. Based on this interaction, if she were someone who didn't know Jade and later on saw her at Hollywood Arts, she would think Jade had an evil twin sister or something. It was like she was completely opposite from her normal behaviour. After a short moment of awkward silence where the both of them were just looking at the other, Tori was about to say something when their waitress came up.

"Hi there Miss West. How are you this evening?"

"Hey Jessica I'm good thanks. How are you doing tonight?"

"Oh just fine thank you. What can I get you today?"

"I think JT's special will work fine for me and Tori will have the Margherita Pizza, but make sure it gets nowhere near any peppers, she's allergic."

"Great choice. I'll let the kitchen know then. Anything else to drink?" Jade just looked over at Tori. Tori was staring at Jade in a bit of shock, trying to figure out how Jade knew about her allergy.

It took her a minute, but she realized that Jessica was waiting for her answer, "Oh water is fine for me thanks." Jessica nodded and then walked away. Tori smiled at Jade, cocking her head to the side.

"How did you know I'm allergic to peppers?"

"I've read your file."

"My file?"

"The one the school has. You're also allergic to bush daisies."

"For some reason I'm not all that surprised that you've read my file. Anyways, thanks for taking me here, Italian is actually one of my favourites. So, did you hand in your short film today?"

"Yeah I did. We had to watch everyone's in class today and it was actually so boring. None of them were as good as ours and I practically fell asleep. My teacher seemed a bit annoyed about the genre I chose, but it's his own fault anyways since he told us there were no restrictions on it, he should have known what he was going to get."

"I hate when teachers do that. I don't have restrictions on my short story for English either which is nice. Except for the fact that I'm a bit stuck on my story at the moment."

"Well I could help you if you want. What's it about?"

"It's sort of a super hero type story, but you don't have to help me. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies with Jemma and we're going to see that new Captain America movie, so I think I might get a bit inspired after that."

"Right… Jemma… how do you know her?"

"She's in my English class, she's writing a dystopian story with some Greek Mythology thrown in."

"Yeah, I don't care."

"You asked!"

"I asked how you knew her, not about her life story." Jade said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I didn't give you her life story, I just told you she has to write a story too, and what it's about."

"Whatever. When do your parents get back?"

"Oh um I think Sunday night. Why?"

"Do they know you're going on a date tomorrow?" Jade was looking at her with one eyebrow raised and totally looked sexy like that, but Tori couldn't dwell on it too long, since there were more important matters to address.

"It's not a date!" Tori said incredulously. It really wasn't, Jemma just wanted to help her with her story.

"Does Jemma know that?"

"I'm sure she does, she's just trying to help me with my story."

"You're going to dinner before though right?"

"Well we both have to eat."

"She's taking you to that new Thai place."

"So?" Tori loved Thai food, and the place just opened, she had been waiting to go to it forever.

"You've been talking about going there for the last month."

"Yeah and?"

"Seriously? She asked you to dinner and a movie, and she's taking you to a brand new restaurant that you've been whining about for like ever."

"I haven't been whining Jade."

"Whatever."

"Why do you care if it's a date or not?"

"You're awful at picking good relationships. You always date jerks."

"Jemma is not a jerk! And she's not a date either! And we're not going to be dating in the future anyways, so it wouldn't matter even if she was a jerk."

"So she isn't the one you 'have your eye on'?"

Tori smiled mischievously at Jade then. "Nope."

"Do I know this person at least?"

"Yup."

"Could you just tell me who it is?"

"You know, taking me to a fancy Italian restaurant is not going to make me tell you who my crush is. But nice try."

"That's not why I took you here."

"Oh? So why did you take me here then?"

"Well it's not like you had plans anyways."

"Right, how did you know that exactly?" Jade just stared at her.

"What?"

"Okay one, you're Tori Vega, and two, I texted Cat."

"And you found her a reliable source?"

"She told me Andre was doing something with his Grandma and you'd obviously not be hanging with Robbie, and obviously I wouldn't take Beck here."

"Have you ever taken Beck here?"

"Why would I?"

"Well, he was your boyfriend."

"Which meant that he was the one to plan dates, so no, I never brought him here."

"But wh-"

"Oh look, food is here." Jade nodded at Jessica who just came up and delivered their plates. The food looked delicious, and Tori was really hungry by then since she didn't eat anything after school and she had to wait for Trina to leave before she could go in the kitchen.

"Hey what did you get?" Tori looked over at Jade's bowl of pasta.

"JT's Spinich Pappardelle, it's like a pasta with Bolognese sauce, but he has this secret ingredient that he puts in the sauce that makes it taste exceptionally good. Want to try some?"

"You're letting me try your food?"

"That's what I asked isn't it? Do you have like a hearing problem or something? You keep asking me to repeat myself."

"But you never share your food with anyone."

"Then you better be quick before I come to my senses." Jade passed her bowl over and Tori picked up her fork, twirling some pasta around it. She closed her eyes as she savored the taste.

"Mmm this is probably the best pasta I've ever had."

"It's the sauce, I told you." Tori passed Jade her food back, and then looked at her pizza. She picked up a slice, and took a big bite, loving the smoky taste that must have come from the wood oven it was baked in.

"Oh my God, everything tastes so good!" Tori said to Jade, smiling as she watched Jade fumble with her fork, trying to get the pasta to curl around it properly.

"That's what I love to hear!" A deep voice said from Tori's right. They both looked towards the sound, and Jade dropped her fork, getting up to give the man a hug.

"JT, it's so good to see you."

"It's great seeing you too Jade. I see you're still having trouble with the Italian art of eating pasta." He smirked at her, and she just rolled her eyes.

"Doesn't stop me from ordering your pasta though. It's as delicious as it always is."

"Well thank you, I can never get tired of compliments. Sorry I didn't get out here sooner, it was just real busy in the kitchen for a moment, and we've got a new guy. Can't leave him on his own for too long you know? Anyways, who's this lovely young lady?" Jade sat back down and Tori smiled up at JT extending her hand towards him.

"Tori Vega. It's really nice to meet you."

"Likewise. You must be pretty special, I don't think Jade has ever brought anyone here. It's usually just her and her mom. You sure know how to pick them though eh Jade?" Tori didn't think she had ever seen Jade embarrassed, but there's a first time for everything. Tori smirked, and looked once again at JT.

"Well I think Jade's pretty special too."

"I'll agree with you on that one, I went to see Jade's play Well Wishes last year, and I thought it was fantastic. You're going to be a great screen writer one day Jade."

"Thanks JT." Jade was smiling then, her cheeks barely pink anymore, looking rather proud of herself.

"It was a really good play. I can't believe we almost weren't able to put it on."

"Really? What changed."

"Tori actually helped me to get it funded. Although that was a bit of a nightmare too."

"I see. Well, I'll leave you two to your date, I just wanted to say hi to Jade, I haven't seen you in so long, you need to come around more often. Oh, and bring this one again." He winked at Jade and left before either of them could say anything.

"So JT thinks this is a date then..." Jade just shrugged and didn't make eye contact. "Interesting…"

"What is?" Jade looked up and asked.

"Oh, I just didn't realize he came to your play is all."

"Well he did."

"Like I said, interesting. How do you know him anyways?"

"My mom works for this big company that I can never remember the name of. Anyways, they asked him to cater this big business party event thing. My mom helped coordinate everything, and they just became really good friends."

"Well he seems really nice." They both got back to eating, not really talking much, but it didn't matter because it wasn't awkward and the food was really good anyways.

Somehow Tori managed to finish her pizza, although it wasn't too big for one person, and she looked up and noticed that Jade was finished with her pasta as well.

"Oh my God Jade, I'm so full I feel like I'm going to burst!"

"Well if you do, wait till we're in the parking lot."

Tori laughed, "sure thing."

"So what are you doing the rest of the weekend? Gonna kidnap anyone else?"

"I didn't kidnap you Vega, you came willingly."

"I would say reluctantly is a better word for that, and it was mostly because I knew you wouldn't take no for an answer anyways."

Jessica walked up then before Jade could say anything more, with another plate in her hand.

"JT wanted me to drop this off for the both of you. It's a new cake he's been working on." Jessica put the plate down in between Jade and Tori. It was a cheesecake beautifully presented on the plate with designs drawn in a red sauce that Tori would guess was raspberry flavoured based on the fruit sitting on top of the cake with a mint leaf.

"Wow, this looks really good, thanks Jessica."

"You're welcome." Jessica said as she took away their dinner plates.

"Yeah, can you thank JT for me too Jess?" Jade added in.

"Sure thing Miss West. You two have a good night, JT already took care of the bill, but stay as long as you want." She walked off then, leaving the two of them alone once again.

"You go first Tori." Tori smiled, picking up her fork and digging in to the cake.

"I think this became one of my new favourite restaurants. Too bad it's so hard to get in."

"We'll just have to come back sometime then. I can get a table here anytime I want."

"Thanks Jade. This has been really nice. I still can't believe you took me here."

"Well I did, no big deal." Tori was about to say that it was a big deal, but decided to let it go based on Jade's expression. No need to start another endless and pointless argument. Jade could be really stubborn sometimes on the stupidest things.

They finished the cake in record time, despite the fact that Tori was really full from her dinner. She couldn't say no to cheesecake though. Jade had grabbed Tori's hand and led her out of the restaurant once again, opening the passenger side door for her before getting in.

They drove back in silence, the radio playing quietly in the background this time, Tori thinking back on the night and how sweet Jade had been, but also how completely weird it was that Jade had taken her out to a restaurant she had never brought anyone else to before. Maybe she was getting through to Jade sooner than she thought. Tori was so lost in her thoughts that it felt like barely any time had gone by before they were already back at Tori's house. She turned to Jade and smiled, leaning over and placing a gentle kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks for taking me Jade, I had a nice night with you, we should go again sometime."

She quickly got out of the car, chuckling at Jade's stunned face as she walked up to her door, looking over her shoulder one more time before she entered her house. With a smile and a sigh, she slowly walked up to her room, and sank down onto her bed.

Tori must have fallen asleep sometime while she was still thinking of Jade, because the next thing she knew she was being woken up by Trina barging into her room and rather loudly calling her name.

"TORI! You better wake up right now Tori or Cuddly Cathy will never see the light of day again!" Trina stood at the end of Tori's bed holding up Tori's Cuddly Cathy doll by one arm.

"Trina! Put Cuddly Cathy down!"

"No! Not until you explain to me why I just got back from a date with Sinjin!" Trina's voice had gotten steadily louder as she talked, Tori cringing the whole time.

"Oh chiz."

"Chiz is right! You let me think I was going on a date with Mark McCallan! Why in the world would you set me up with Sinjin?! He's so creepy and gross!"

"I know Trina, but I needed him to do something for me, and he asked to go on a date with you in exchange and if I told you, you would have never agreed to it."

"Yeah well now you'll be sorry you did set me up on that date, because you're never going to see Cuddly Cathy again!"

"Trina! Please, just give her back."

"No! I'm never trusting you about dates again! I thought that since you finally told me that you like Jade, you would pass all your male dates towards me, but that doesn't mean I want to go on a date with Sinjin!"

"Calm down Trina. Just put Cuddly Cathy down okay?"

"NO!" Tori went to grab for her doll, but Trina stepped away and held her higher up in the air. Tori just cringed, imagining her falling from that height and breaking.

"I'm sorry Trina, okay? But I did convince Mark to go out with you tomorrow, so please, don't be too made at me. You can put Cuddly Cathy down now too." Trina just looked at Tori with narrowed eyes.

"You really set me up with Mark McCallan this time?"

"Yes! I'm not lying about this. I wasn't even lying about Sinjin either, I just told you that I set you up on a date. You're the one who assumed it was Mark."

"Fine. Why were you sleeping in your clothes anyways? It's only like 10:30 too."

"Oh, um, I was just lying here after I got back from the restaurant."

"You were on a date too?! Who was it with? Where did you go? How did I not know about this sooner?"

"Woah, slow down, I'm still half asleep here. Also, give me Cathy now, I don't want you hurting her." Trina slowly passed the doll back to Tori, who carefully laid it on her night stand.

"Okay, first of all I wasn't on a date, but I did go out with Jade. She took me to Aventine Trattoria, you know that Italian place?"

"Oh my God! People wait months to go there! She took you there, and you're not calling it a date?"

"Well, she didn't really ask me out, she kind of dragged me there unexpectedly."

"Well did you pay for your own food?"

"Not exactly."

"See! God Tori, you're so clueless all the time!"

"Hey! I resent that!"

"She was obviously taking you on a date, even if you didn't exactly say those words out loud. It was at a fancy Italian restaurant and she paid for your food."

"She did not pay for my food. She knows one of the owners and he took care of the bill."

"That's irrelevant. It was still a date."

"It was not."

Trina rolled her eyes, "You can live in denial if you want, but that girl so likes you and took you on a date."

"Well I know she likes me so I'm not as oblivious as you think, I just wouldn't call it a date date."

"A date date? You know what Tori? I don't really care, I need to put my ketchup mask on anyways, I still feel like I have Sinjin germs just from having to sit a meter away from him."

Tori just sighed as Trina left and went to her dresser to change into her pajamas. She then put her Cuddly Cathy doll back in her place of honour, on the shelf by her door and then slid back into her bed. It wasn't a date, Jade was probably just hungry and wanted to go with someone and Cat and Andre were busy and Jade hadn't taken Beck there when they were dating, so she wouldn't start now. Tori dismissed everything in favour of sleep. She had the whole day before going out with Jemma to think about why Jade had decided to take her out to dinner.


End file.
